The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, says that his office would set up a specialised department to tackle insecurity in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.
The approach would be to integrate the people of the region in the fight against insecurity, he said.
Mr Ribadu made the disclosure on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on the first day of the Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit 2024, where he was a special guest of honour.
The four-day summit is organised by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“I am determined to set up, for the first time in the ONSA, a Directorate that shall specialise in insecurity of the Niger Delta through which we can, as stakeholders, take a critical look at the peculiar security challenges of the region in a focused and professional way,” said Mr Ribadu who was represented by his special adviser on energy security and Niger Delta affairs, Osaretin Grace.
Mr Ribadu said the plan to set up the new department is predicated on his idea of making the Niger Delta “in a more active and determined way” a national security priority under the vision and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
He said his office, led by his special adviser on Energy Security and Niger Delta Affairs, was working closely with the governors of the region and the presidency on the new plan, which would eventually involve other interested groups like the community leaders, traditional rulers, students, government security agencies, and civil society.
He said that Mr Tinubu’s broader and long-term national security vision includes “moving internal security from the current strong posture from kinetic to non-kinetic operations” and that he (Ribadu) “will emphasise security from human and socio-economic development point of view to deepen democratic culture in the Niger Delta.”
Oil theft
While militancy has greatly reduced in the Niger Delta, oil theft, pipeline vandalisation, and related crimes have become the latest source of concern in the region.
“Before 2024, a 1.8 million barrel-per-day production quota was allotted to Nigeria by OPEC. However, only about less than 1.4 million barrels per day with a short-fall of 600,000 barrels per day is produced,” Mr Ribadu said.
“This is due to socio-economic issues that relate to security such as crude oil theft, pipeline vandalisation, environmentally harmful artisanal refining, sea piracy and youth militancy,” he added.
Mr Ribadu said President Tinubu is deeply concerned that federal agencies have not been able to stop oil-theft and other criminal activities in the Niger Delta.
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“This is why a collaborative policy and intervention framework has become necessary,” he said.
“Our agitations in the Niger Delta region have moved from carrying arms to intellectual agitations where we tell governments what we want in the region,” the Managing Director of the NDDC, Samuel Ogbuku, said at the summit, apparently capturing the shift in the security challenges in the region which President Tinubu acknowledged “provides an estimated 75% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings”, according to Mr Ribadu.
